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Asle Hoffart

Publications and source records attributed to Asle Hoffart.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Acute COVID-19 severity and impaired cognitive function up to 32 months after diagnosis: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive dysfunction ("brain fog") is a commonly reported post-COVID-19 symptom. Leveraging data from five general population cohorts across four European countries (Estonia, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), we assessed long-term prevalence of impaired subjective cognitive function among individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 by acute illness severity. METHODS: The included cohorts consisted of adult participants recruited from March 2020 and followed with self-report measures of cognitive function and past COVID-19 infection (except one cohort consisting of clinically confirmed COVID-19 cases) through February 2023. In a cross-sectional analysis we contrasted the prevalence of impaired cognitive function among individuals with and without a COVID-19 diagnosis, overall and by illness severity up to 32&#xa0;months post-diagnosis. We adjusted for age, gender, education, relationship status, binge drinking, body mass index, previous psychiatric diagnosis, number of chronic medical conditions, and response period. In a longitudinal analysis, we assessed potential changes in cognitive function scores before and after COVID-19 diagnosis. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 153,841 participants (71% women), with 31,359 (20.4%) reporting a positive COVID-19 test. Overall, a COVID-19 diagnosis was not statistically significantly associated with increased prevalence ratio (PR) of impaired cognitive function (PR 1.30 [95% CI: 0.98-1.71]). Individuals bedridden due to COVID-19 for 1-6&#xa0;days (PR 1.38 [95% CI 0.96-1.99]) or&#x2009;&#x2265;&#x2009;7&#xa0;days (2.59 [1.55-4.33]) had higher prevalence of impaired cognitive function compared to those never diagnosed, while individuals never bedridden had a lower prevalence to those never diagnosed with COVID-19 (0.89 [0.80-1.00]). These findings were corroborated in the longitudinal analysis where a pre- to post diagnosis decline in cognitive function was observed among individuals bedridden due to COVID-19 (p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The data indicates that a severe COVID-19 acute illness course is associated with impaired cognitive function up to 18-32&#xa0;months after COVID-19 diagnosis.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Integrated wilderness therapy for avoidant personality disorder.

Patients with avoidant personality disorder (APD) are difficult to treat because of their extensive social, emotional and cognitive avoidance. Few studies have addressed outcome in APD and there is no therapy of choice. In this quasi-experimental study, we integrated wilderness therapy in an inpatient group program (integrated wilderness therapy, IWT), in order to enhance outcome for patients with APD. We compared outcome of the IWT group with a similar inpatient group program without wilderness therapy: the comparison condition (CC). The subjects in the IWT-group (n=16) with DSM-IV APD were treated in 11.5 weeks. The subjects in the comparison group (n=37) were selected from our database with the same diagnostic criteria. The participants were examined at pre-care, admission, discharge and 1-year follow-up. Both groups were significantly improved, but there were no significant differences between them. There were some non-significant trends for males to gain most benefit from IWT, whereas females were more improved by the CC. The results indicate that by integrating wilderness therapy we were able to treat more impaired patients at shorter time with almost the same outcome.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Therapists' emotional reactions to patients as a mediator in cognitive behavioural treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia.

The aims of this study were to examine whether therapists' emotional reactions to their patients mediate the effect of personality disorders and interpersonal problem behaviours on the outcome of treatment, focusing on an Axis I disorder; and whether therapists' reactions mediate the effect of personality disorders on the course of interpersonal problems. Therapists completed a checklist of emotional reactions to individual patients after the end of residential cognitive or guided mastery therapy for 46 inpatients with panic disorder with agoraphobia. The severity of DSM-III-R personality disorder was related to therapists' insecurity feelings, but not to interest and anger. A higher level of therapists' insecurity feelings was related to less reduction in self-reported agoraphobic avoidance during treatment, whereas therapists' emotions were unrelated to symptomatic course after treatment. Therapists' insecurity feelings appeared partly to mediate the relationship between patients' severity of personality disorder and persistence of patients' interpersonal dominance and nurturance problems.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Two-year prospective study of personality disorders in adults with longstanding eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The current study had three objectives: to report the presence of personality disorders (PDs) in adults with longstanding eating disorders (EDs) at admission to inpatient treatment, and at 1 and 2-year follow-up; to compare the frequency of PDs in anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS); and to investigate whether recovered patients had lower frequency of PDs. METHOD: Seventy-four patients with a mean age of 30 years and long-lasting EDs were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-II disorders at admission to inpatient treatment, and at 1 and 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: At admission, 57 patients (77%) had one or more PDs, whereas 42 patients (57%) had one or more PDs at 2-year follow-up No statistically significant differences in frequencies of PDs among patients with AN, BN, and EDNOS were found. Recovered patients had a lower frequency of PDs (p < .01). DISCUSSION: At 2-year follow-up, there were substantial reductions in the frequency of PDs in patients with long-lasting EDs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

The interaction of personality disorders and eating disorders: a two-year prospective study of patients with longstanding eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to investigate the relation between personality disorders and symptoms of both eating disorders and general psychopathology over time. METHOD: Seventy-four patients, with a mean age of 30 years and admitted to a hospital for treatment of a chronic eating disorder, were assessed using the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE), the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II disorders (SCID-II) at admission, and after 1 and 2 years. RESULTS: At the 2-year follow-up, there was considerable reduction in both personality and symptoms (effect size = 0.83-0.94). Panel modeling using structural equation modeling techniques indicated that symptomatic changes generally preceded changes in the personality disorder. DISCUSSION: Eating disorder symptoms and general symptomatology had direct effects on a dimensional personality disorder index. Thus, personality disorders may be at least partially a consequence of general symptomatology in chronic eating disorders. Symptom improvement appears to precede changes in personality in this sample of patients with chronic eating disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

The dimensionality of dependent personality disorder.

The criteria for dependent personality disorder (DPD) in DSM-IV appear to fall into two categories: dependent and attachment behaviors. The relevance of this division was evaluated in a sample of 182 patients admitted to a national Norwegian psychiatric hospital. Principal Components Analysis of all items belonging to the most frequent personality diagnoses revealed six components. The items for DPD formed two components, labeled attachment/abandonment and dependency/incompetence. Two criteria for borderline personality disorder also loaded on the attachment/abandonment component, while six criteria for avoidant personality disorder loaded on the dependency/incompetence component. Early Maladaptive Schemas of abandonment and failure correlated significantly higher with the attachment/abandonment component than with the dependency/incompetence component.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Sympathetic reactivity in agoraphobic patients with and without personality disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To compare sympathetic activity in agoraphobic patients with and without personality disorders before and after 11 weeks inpatient treatment. METHODS: Agoraphobic patients (n=38), 84% with panic disorder and 47% with personality disorders underwent cold pressure test (CPT), mental stress test (MST), and a specific anxiety test (SAT). Psychological assessments were done by the Bodily Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ), the Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ), Spielberger STAI-1 and -2, and a Stress Test Anxiety (STA) questionnaire. Sympathetic activity was measured by blood pressure, heart rate, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. RESULTS: The sympathetic activity did not differ significantly between patient groups, and the reactivity to stress was very low. The sympathetic reactivity remained unchanged after treatment, whereas psychiatric symptoms decreased. Correlations between sympathetic activity and psychological distress were not significant. CONCLUSION: Interpretation of bodily signals seems to be more important than the actual sympathetic activity in agoraphobic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Psychiatric staff members' emotional reactions toward patients. A psychometric evaluation of an extended version of the Feeling Word Checklist (FWC-58).

The study evaluated the psychometric properties of an extended version of the Feeling Word Checklist (FWC-58), which measure the therapists' emotional reactions toward patients. Doctors, psychologists, nurses and aides from 23 wards in seven widely different psychiatric departments completed a total of 3012 forms. The original Feeling Word Checklist (Whyte CR, Constantopoulos C, Bevans HG. Br J Med Psychol 1982;55:187-201) was expanded with 28 feeling words covering more feelings of being invaded, idealized, devalued and of being secure. The rating scale was changed from a two-point (yes/no) scale to a five-point scale ranging from not at all (=0) to very much (=4). The factor analysis revealed ten factors with an eigenvalue equal or greater than 1.0. The two first factors were clearly the strongest but a two-factor solution did not satisfactorily reflect the data. The scree test indicated four to seven factors. We chose a seven-factor solution, as this seemed clinically most meaningful. Based on the factors we developed seven indices which were named: Important, Rejected, Confident, Bored, On guard, Overwhelmed and Inadequate. The subscales had satisfactory internal consistency and described meaningful emotional profiles of the different psychiatric wards and the individual patients. The seven subscales seem well worth to use in further research and in a clinical context.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2002

The role of optimism in the process of schema-focused cognitive therapy of personality problems.

The aim of this study was to examine the determinants and effects of optimism in the process of schema-focused cognitive therapy of personality problems. The sample consisted of 35 patients with panic disorder and/or agoraphobia and DSM-IV Cluster C personality traits who participated in an 11-week residential program with one symptom-focused and one personality-focused phase. This study examines the role played by optimism during the individual sessions of the second phase, using a time series approach. Decreased patient's belief in his/her primary Early Maladaptive Schema and increased patient-experienced empathy from the therapist in a session predicted increased patient-rated optimism before the subsequent session. Increased patient-rated optimism in turn predicted decreased schema belief and distress and increased insight, empathy, and therapist-rated optimism. The slope of optimism across sessions was related to change in most of the overall outcome measures. There appears to be a positive feedback in the process of schema-focused cognitive therapy between decreased schema belief and increased optimism. In addition, optimism appears to mediate the effects of schema belief and therapist empathy on overall improvement, and to serve as an antecedent to decreased distress and to increased empathy, insight, and therapist's optimism.

Adult↗